Green with grass envy - He says lawn-care companies convinced homeowners that clover, which adds nitrogen to the soil, was not a plant but a weed. Not only did companies sell chemicals to kill this "weed," but they sold grass seed mixtures that no longer included clover ** which in turn created the need for more chemicals to make up for a deficiency of the nitrogen formerly provided by the clover.

"I don't think people even really understand that when they use 'weed and feed,' they're throwing down herbicide," he says. "They just focus on the feeding part."

"Throwing all that fertilizer down on the lawn, especially stuff like phosphorous, is bad because it leads to things like nutrification," he says, adding excess chemicals carried into lakes promotes algae growth that, when the algae dies, leads to oxygen depletion that can kill other species in the lake.

I don't want to come off sounding like pesticides for lawns are all good either. IF used according to the label, then pesticides can be safer to not only the user, but the environment. But there are a lot of factors that can make pesticide applications very dangerous. From how much is applied, the proper protection equipment used, the weather conditions, etc.